How to win against Yorick?

Alrighty then.. I primarily play mid/top/jungle and I have no real problems against any specific champions, except one. Yorick. I haven't won my lane against him in top once.

I can play defensively and avoid dying until the enemy jungler appears for a tower dive.
I can hold the turret for as long as needed. But it's still a loss, as he'll be 3-4 times ahead in farm.
But I just can't win. I can't beat him with any of the top champs I play.

Which champions counter Yorick and how? How do you guys play against Yorick?

In my experience, i've had to be a brawler. Someone that can take damage and dish it out just as much. I prefer Nasus as he can ensure that he doesn't escape if it's in your favor, or make sure you can if it goes south.

Try to think of people that can take punishments, or someone strong ranged. Gangplank works well too.

Renekton is a very good champion to play against Yorick. Your sustain and fighting power is amazing. If you can get your jungler to kill your tower early on, yorick cannot flee from you, and you win fights. You can simply chase him all the way if you see the ennemy jungler is at bot.

Originally Posted by Sahugani

PS: If you detect ANY irony or sarcasm in this post AT ALL, please report it to [email protected]

Udyr just becomes completely unmovable in lane with a few levels and a bit of farm

Trundle does want a Wriggle's, but he can sustain through most of Yorick's harass. He *will* want the jungler to camp top for the first couple of levels though. That is, in general, a good idea anyway. It will put Yorick behind so much he can not free farm. A number of them actually start Meki Pendant to get Tear faster. Have the jungler punish them for no wards/pots/boots.

Mordekaiser, especially with SpellVamp, just shoves the lane too hard for Yorick and his shield prevents most of Yorick's harass. He is the highest win/loss rate champion vs Yorick, even if it's not a hard counter as such.

Not sure if armour is a good counter for his early game. Don't his harassment spells (W and E) do magic damage?

The initial bursts of W and E do magic damage while Q and the ghouls themselves are physical. I personally go early MR laning against Yorick because you can avoid ghoul AAs if you use the bush to break line of sight. If you're gonna try to melee exchange with him (aka Jax, maybe Cho'gath) then you may want the armor to deal with his Q and the ghouls sticking to you.

Beating Yorick involves bush dancing the ghouls, strategic farming, and ganks. Yorick can farm as easily under his tower as he can push you to yours. You may need to be babysat depending on your champ pick. That's just the reality.

I honestly don't think any character is a HARD counter to Yorick. There are champs who can eventually outsustain him like Cho'Gath, Udyr, and such. I think Trundle's passive gets a little too much credit as a Yorick stomper considering you're healing for ~5-15hp per ghoul against an early game Yorick.

In my experience, i've had to be a brawler. Someone that can take damage and dish it out just as much. I prefer Nasus as he can ensure that he doesn't escape if it's in your favor, or make sure you can if it goes south.

Try to think of people that can take punishments, or someone strong ranged. Gangplank works well too.

Nasus with Lifesteal Quints can just farm his lane all day long and will win the lategame so hard.

Trundle and Cho'Gath because of their innate sustain.

Kennen and Vladimir because of item sustain and counterharass capabilities.

Renekton, Riven and Kayle for those level 1-4 fights that will snowball the lane to your favor.

I know a lot of people may say otherwise, But I love Irelia vs Yorick. Yes she has a weak-ish early game, and can get denied farm by Yoricks strong early game, harass. I just play it safe, see if your jungler will gank top right away. When I say right away, I mean going red then top. 3/4ths of the time you won't get a kill, But you will force him back or to play safe in lane till he heals up. If you actually get a kill it puts you far enough ahead that you can be more comfortable against his strong early game.

I usually go 1Q, 1E then Max W vs him just to try and keep up with his sustain with your own, Because sustain is the name of the game in this matchup. First buy is almost always a philo stone, again, more sustain. I tend to use my ult pretty liberally against him to clear creep waves(also sustains) if he is pushing the lane. Unless I have the chance to freeze the lane in a good spot, in which i'll just last hit, sit pretty, play safe for a while and hope for mid/late game to get here ASAP.

Pick an aggressive and strong champion to make his life hell before tear. One he gets it, gg.
Irelia and survive until you get a Wit's End and Phage around lvl 9, where you can 1v1 anyone in lane pretty much
Get your jungler to camp and gank.

Honestly, you don't BEAT Yorick. You survive him. Once he gets a Tear, pretty much no one can take him on. He has too much harass and self sustain, and slow ghoul makes peeling with him easy.

Nunu.
Try Nunu. Seriously, do it.
Use Q on the red ghoul asap. Spam Ice Blast on Yorick. Don't forget to autoattack all the other ghouls (even the red one when Q is not up) for your passive.
I main Yorick top usually and I just tried Nunu against another Yorick. It was so fun and satisfying to try to counter him that way.
I promise, give it a try. It's not easy, but it's entirely doable if you manage your passive well.
PS: I started with Doran's ring.

EDIT:
the biggest matter in top lane is the ganking stuff and Nunu totally outshine Yorick here; he denies him his mobility (IceBlast's slow is retarded srsly; if you factor in bloodboil, Yorick has to blow flash or die tryin') and the killing potential is definitely in Nunu's favor here. Only problem is the obvious tower diving power of Yorick. But as a Nunu, you should almost always be topped off so their tower dive has to be near perfect to take you down.

Last edited by Yhal; 2012-08-20 at 12:44 AM.
Reason: More explanations

Push to his tower and roam
Or pick someone with good sustain so that you can farm and eventually outscale him, for example nunu or cho
Trundle doesnt work because he is even more useless late than yorick

Push to his tower and roam
Or pick someone with good sustain so that you can farm and eventually outscale him, for example nunu or cho
Trundle doesnt work because he is even more useless late than yorick

Mordekaiser as said above. A bit of AP and you 2 hit entire minion waves while your shield negates most of the harass. He either tries to push back hard and waste loads of mana, or he lets you run around, get golems etc. That said, I'm not a massive fan of Morde top really.

Mordekaiser as said above. A bit of AP and you 2 hit entire minion waves while your shield negates most of the harass. He either tries to push back hard and waste loads of mana, or he lets you run around, get golems etc. That said, I'm not a massive fan of Morde top really.

Bursting a minion wave means all yorick has to do is wait for you to push then safely farm. He can tank a full wave of minions in front of his turret so the lane never gets pushed back. Given morde's lack of escape this means that he can't safely farm anymore without worry of a jungle gank (especially if he's purple team). The worst thing to do vs yorick is to push the lane back. You just need to time your E so that you gain the shield (preferably from hitting him) at the moment he's going to E.

Yes, I'm a bit mad right now. Yes, I just lost against Yorick.

Alrighty then.. I primarily play mid/top/jungle and I have no real problems against any specific champions, except one. Yorick. I haven't won my lane against him in top once.

I can play defensively and avoid dying until the enemy jungler appears for a tower dive.
I can hold the turret for as long as needed. But it's still a loss, as he'll be 3-4 times ahead in farm.
But I just can't win. I can't beat him with any of the top champs I play.

Which champions counter Yorick and how? How do you guys play against Yorick?

Udyr. Lane Udyr.

Udyr absolutely tanks yorick, all he needs to do is rush wiggles and max turtle stance while being 9/21/0 or 0/21/9. He also should have MR glyphs and Armor Seals in order to take a hit or two. When he ghouls you, just attack the ghoul so you can heal without leaving lane. Also, go tiger stance vs pheonix stance after turtle so that you can Q him for a big burst and run away with bear stance. A few hits with tiger stance switching can push him out of lane once you have wiggles + lvl 1 boots.

Yorick is also pretty countered by ganks, he lacks a reliable escape if hit from two sides (His slow can stop a gank where both assailants are next to one another). Generally your best bet is someone like shaco or Xin Zhao when ganking.